Friday, October 20, 2006

Rock on, Iain!

My copy of the new album is even now winging its little way through the post from my favoured on-line supplier. I've seen the man perform on a few of his recent tours (including his farewell tour a couple of years back - even if he does keep popping up on odd occasions) and although Iain's right when he says that the voice isn't what it was, Mr Loaf is still a fine showman.

Don't take the music seriously, even if it soars to operatic heights at times. Loaf is about fun and a little bit of nostalgia for all the hope and promise that we all had in our youth. It is gloriously theatrical - always helped by Jim Steinman's writing (a man who will never use one word in a song title when six will do instead). Sadly, a dispute over the ownership of the Bat Out of Hell trademark has kept the dynamic duo apart for this album, even if a number of the songs are Steinman originals.

Iain reckons that the album won't do as well as the first Bat. He's bound to be right on that - Bat Out of Hell spent 474 weeks on the UK album charts and has shifted 34 million copies worldwide.